W. W. [Aleksander Lesser], Biographies of the Rulers of Poland from Mieszko I to Stanisław August [1861]

Title: Biographies of the Rulers of Poland from Mieszko I to Stanisław August.

Author: W. W. [author of the biographies hidden behind initials]; portrait illustrations: Aleksander Lesser (1814–1884) [historical painter, co-founder of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, member of the Academy of Learning in Kraków].

Publisher: Warsaw, Published by the Polish Bookstore of A. Dzwonkowski and Company.

Year of publication: 1861.

Format: 27 cm.

Volume: [2], 128, 10 pp., [41] plates.

Binding: publisher’s cloth.

An album of biographical sketches with lithographed portraits of forty rulers, from Mieczysław (Mieszko) I to Stanisław August Poniatowski. Each biography is preceded by an image based on a drawing by Aleksander Lesser, transferred to stone by the Warsaw lithographers Władysław Walkiewicz and Henryk Aschenbrenner. In bibliophilia, this edition is known as the “Little Lesser,” a cheaper and smaller version of an earlier edition of royal portraits (1860), known as the “Big Lesser” (7 rubles unbound, 11 rubles bound). The large-format “Portraits of Polish Kings” was published with a historical commentary by Julian Bartoszewicz. The volume appeared in Warsaw in 1861, a year of major patriotic demonstrations preceding the outbreak of the January Uprising, and it was then that Lesser himself painted the work “The Funeral of the Five Fallen,” which brought him fame.

Aleksander Lesser was born on May 13, 1814, in Warsaw to the wealthy family of the merchant Levi Lesser; he died in 1884 in Kraków. He studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Warsaw under Antoni Brodowski, then at the academies in Dresden (1832–1835) and Munich (1835–1840), and in 1846 he returned permanently to Warsaw. He was a historical painter, creator of religious scenes and portraits, as well as an art critic and organizer of the artistic life of the city. He was elected to the Academy of Learning in Kraków as a representative of the Polish kings; from 1860, he was an honorary member of the Kraków Scientific Society; and King Charles XV of Sweden awarded him the Grand Gold Medal “Litteris et artibus.” He belonged to a group of Polish Jews associated with the assimilationist movement, and in 1878 he joined the Art History Commission of the Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Provenance: a private piece, with no institutional seals or library stamps, and no underlining or annotations in the text.

A graphically complete piece of one of the most important Polish iconographic albums of the 19th century—a must-have for collectors of antique prints and lithographs, national memorabilia, and bibliophiles who value pieces in outstanding condition. A portrait gallery of Polish rulers in its original, ornate binding.

The block is compact, tight, and mechanically stable; the original stitching is strong, and the pages lie flat. Heavyweight paper, clean and bright, free of foxing, water stains, waviness, losses, and edge creases; all lithographic plates preserved, prints sharp. The original, artistically decorated cloth binding is clean and stiff, free of discoloration, stains, cracks, and scuffs; the corners and edges of the cover are straight. Overall condition: very good.

Catalog ID: 11972-27-C-X-Q